Category: Quizzes

What does a mascot say about a brand? Do manly brand mascots convey qualities that build consumer confidence, likeability, and trust? See if you can identify these brand icons and the product each represents. Then consider what attribute they evoke – tough, unflappable, suave, protective, devil-may-care, jovial, helpful, fearless — and decide whether he is the right guy for the job. See answers after the jump.

Car emblems have existed almost from the inception of automobiles. Early cars had radiator caps that rested on top of the hood. At least one automaker got the idea of turning the cap into a hood ornament. Soon every automaker had an emblem or mascot adorning the hood of their car. In addition to giving the vehicle a decorative flourish, the emblem served as a brand identifier. Early carmakers based their designs on everything from national flags, family crests, coat of arms, constellation of stars, and animals that embodied the traits they admired. Today with the profile of cars looking so much alike, the emblem is often the only way we can identify the maker. See if you can recognize these. (Answers on the next page.)

Some observations have been quoted so often that they have become adages of our profession. But do you really know who first said it? This quiz asks you to match the quote with the famous speaker. The answers are on the next page (don’t peek!!)..

Social Media Week ran an interesting article last week on the 20 top snack brands on Facebook based on community size. According to a survey it conducted in April, the top brand attracted nearly 19 million fans, while the 20th ranked brand garnered 1.6 million. Here’s a quiz to see if you can rank the brands in order. Keep in mind the ranking isn’t according to sales, but on how effectively these brands used Facebook. Click here to read Social Media Week’s analysis of popular features that the brands integrated into their Facebook site.

This January type fonts earned long overdue recognition as “designed objects” when the renowned Museum of Modern Art in New York City acquired 23 digital typefaces for its Architecture and Design Collection. Except for its acquisition of Helvetica, this is the first time typefaces made it into MoMA’s permanent collection.

This quiz is to see if you can name the 23 faces inducted into the MoMA permanent collection — and three more classic faces we added just to round out the alphabet. To help you along, we included a clue alongside the font letter, and can tell you that the type designers chosen for the MoMA collection are Wim Crouwel, Matthew Carter, Erik Spiekermann, Zuzana Licko, Jeffery Keedy, Erik van Blokland, Just van Rossum, Barry Deck, P. Scott Makela, Jonathan Hoefler, Neville Brody, Jonathan Barnbrook, Tobias Frere-Jones, and Albert-Jan Pool. Good luck! (Answers on next page.)

When it comes to branding commercial aircraft, the tail comes before the nose. The tailfin is the tallest part of the plane. It’s the last thing people on the ground see as the plane lifts off. And pretty much the only part they see when the plane is parked buy adobe acrobat nose first at the gate. It is a flying billboard, which is why airline branding experts focus most of their attention on designing memorable graphics for the tail. See if you can match the airline with these tails. Answers on next page.

About 12 years ago, we posted a quiz, called “The Human Touch,” in @Issue, challenging readers to name the face in the trademark. We are updating it here because back then, there were too many to fit on a spread, so some favorites had to be left out. Also, in the ensuing decade, new brand “people” have emerged and some have been given much-needed facelifts. The reason why companies give their brand a face hasn’t changed, however. Faces are often more memorable than an abstract mark. The right face can humanize a product and give it personality. It can imply the endorsement of an expert. Or it can just make the brand seem more likeable and fun. See if you can connect the face with the brand. The answers are on the next page.

Specific numbers are sometimes associated with or incorporated into brand names. This is a quiz to match the number with the product or company. Give yourself extra points and a pat on the back, if you can explain how the connection came to be. The answers are on the next page.

Transformation is in the air. Business leaders across industries are recognizing that “old school” management isn’t up to the task of nonstop innovation. As a result, companies that were once run from the top down are steadily shifting to a more networked style of management in which employees and customers play a greater role in driving innovation. Networked cultures tend to be more creative, more agile, and better able to anticipate the needs of customers.

How do you create a culture of innovation? By recognizing one simple fact: If you want to innovate, you’ve got to design. Design and design thinking are the tools that create new products, new services, new business models, new markets, and new industries. The best way to leverage innovation—as outlined in my latest book—is to build a “designful company”.

To find out where you are on the culture curve, take this simple test: Share a total of 10 points across each of the 10 pairs below. For example, if your company is more siloed than collaborative, you might score it 6 and 4. When you’ve finished, add up the two columns to measure your progress. If your totals come out to 60 and 40, for example, you could say that you’re 40% along the path to an innovative culture.

This is a quiz to test your knowledge of cheese and/or type fonts. Created by Tony Gambone at mogrify.org in Richmond, Virginia, the quiz gives an unfair advantage to serious cheese lovers. However, if there is ever a quiz called “Chocolate or Font?”, some of us will leave you cheese lovers in the dust.

Since time immemorial kids have developed their own slang language to communicate amongst themselves and make the older generation feel really out-of-it. If you want to be gnarly, you have to get with the program. Gotta know what’s phat to be cool. Dig it! Same goes with type fonts. Certain faces are so closely associated with an era, that like zoot suits and Nehru jackets, they become signatures of a decade. For designers, such typefaces serve as graphic devices to subtly evoke images of an era without going overboard with clichés. See if you can match these slang phrases with the decade in which they were most popular, and if you are really feeling sharp, name the typefaces too.

Countries and regions of the world are known not only for their landmarks and the products they produce but for patterns, many of which embody traces of their history, their natural resources, their cultural temperament and beliefs, and even the mood of their landscape. Then again, that’s not always the case. When we were researching culturally indigenous patterns for this quiz, we found some countries were rich with choices, and others like the U.S. and Canada did not evoke anything definitive. Is there a pattern that immediately says “America”? What about Brazil, Sweden and Denmark? Weigh in please. And see if you can match these patterns with the countries from which they originated.

About 12 years ago, we presented a quiz titled “Alphabet Soup,” (Vol. 3, No. 2) to see if our readers could identify a company simply by the first logotype letter in its name. Since then, new companies, and whole new industries, have risen to the forefront. Some of the brands featured in that quiz don’t exist anymore. So, we have created a new alphabet quiz out of logotypes from some of today’s best-known companies. Keep in mind that the most recognizable letter is sometimes in the middle of the name. If you’re stumped, take a peek at the answers.

We have all heard of the American dollar, the European Union euro, the South African rand, the Japanese yen, etc., but can you recognize currency symbols on sight? Are you aware that at least 24 countries use the “$” sign to denote that the number that follows has a monetary value? In this global economy, it has becoming increasingly important for designers, editors and proofreaders to have at least a rudimentary knowledge of money marks. Here are a few currency symbols. Using the number beside each symbol, see if you can match the symbol with the country that uses it. Note: Due to space, not all countries that share the same symbol are listed.